Raising the standard

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon
Raising the standard
BER
DECEM
7
2008
The result was success that perhaps
even the most optimistic person
involved would only have dreamed
of. The 2002 edition of the race
attracted over 6000 runners, nearly
500 of them from overseas. A
genuine elite athlete, Constantina
Dita (the 2008 Olympic champion)
beat the 16-year old event record.
From that dramatic breakthrough
year, progress has been little short of
meteoric. For the next four years,
the combined field for all events
grew by 50% each year… 10,000,
15,000, 21,000, 31,000. Foreign
participation soared as well,
reaching 1,800 in 2006. As a
saturation level approaches, growth
has slowed slightly over the last two
years, but numbers still jumped by
30% in 2007 and 20% in 2008.
The quality of the marathon
experience offered is what has
driven the growth. While little can
be done about the less than
comfortable climatic conditions World Marathon champion Luke
Kibet and three-time World CrossCountry champion Edith Masai
won the 2008 Singapore Marathon,
and posted impressive times given
the tough conditions faced only
130km north of the equator. The
heat and humidity – and the
consequently early start time of
05.30 did not deter 15,000 runners
from tackling the marathon, and
another 33,000 from the associated
half marathon and 10km races.
Such huge numbers testify to the
success of the Standard Charteredsponsored event that began only six
years ago.
The city-state of Singapore, with a
national territory covering only 700
square kilometres, was one of the
original “tiger” economies. It made
huge strides forward after
independence in 1965 and
continued to develop its economy
through electronics, petrochemicals,
tourism and financial services to the
point where it now has the sixth
highest gross domestic product per
capita in the world, and huge
foreign exchange reserves.
Under the Standard Chartered
stewardship the marathon has
recently followed a similar
development trajectory, although for
many years it was held in the
doldrums partly by the success of
the wider Singaporean economy.
Founded back in the 1980s the
Marathon was only fully embraced
by the city in 2002. Before then the
Singapore Marathon was an event
that had become out of step with
the wider world marathon
movement, relying on a “rolling
closure” of roads that was
1
Distance Running
The quality of the
marathon experience
offered is what has
driven the growth
impossible to enforce in practice. In
terms of its marathon Singapore
was a backwater, playing host to an
event that did not live up to the
city’s status as a world capital.
The 2001 event was a watershed.
Singapore Marathon had joined
AIMS only a month previously, but
basic shortcomings in the
organisation of the race – including
inadequate water stations and traffic
control – led many participants to
protest at their experience.
Representations were made and very
soon the authorities were faced with
a basic dilemma: disband the event
or reconstitute it entirely. To their
lasting credit they seized the
opportunity and called in help for a
root-and-branch re-think.
The dangers were only reemphasized when one of the team
called in to assist, scouting out a
new route, met with a serious traffic
accident. At the same time,
Standard Chartered were looking
outside their base in Hong Kong,
where they had taken over the Hong
Kong Marathon in 1997, at other
countries in which they could raise
their standard. This eventually led
to them becoming title sponsors in
the Dubai Marathon and the
inaugural Mumbai and Nairobi
Marathons, but Singapore was the
first to which they committed.
Month – Month 2009
RESULT
MEN:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Luke KIBET
Johnstone CHEPKWONY
Amos MATUI
John STEVEN
Victor MANGUSHO
Sammy TUM
Francis KIPROP
Joel Kimaru KEIYO
Evans KIPKOSGEI
Tariku JAFUR
KEN
KEN
KEN
TAN
KEN
KEN
KEN
KEN
KEN
ETH
2.13.01
2.15.12
2:15:15
2:17:39
2:17:57
2:18:06
2:18:26
2:18:31
2:19:17
2:19:28
KEN
RUS
KEN
KEN
ETH
RUS
CHN
SWE
AUS
JPN
2:34:15
2:37:10
2:42:39
2:45:32
2:46:11
2:46:55
2:49:26
2:50:48
2:50:50
2:52:25
WOMEN:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Edith MASAI
Silvia SKVORTSOVA
Rose CHESIRE
Irene CHEROP
Gebre ROMAN
Madina BIKTAGIROVA
Junli ZHANG
Lena GEVELIN
Helen STANTON
Seki KIMURA
apart from making the start time
earlier, runners (who now set off
half an hour earlier at 05.30) have
been offered a more congenial
route, taking in the city centre in the
first and last few kilometres, but
also incorporating a long out-back
section from 12-30km along the
palm-fringed coastline of the East
Coast Park.
The new route, though objectively
better, was not particularly
spectator-friendly, To compensate,
the race organisers found a formula.
They created the “Runspiration”
initative, in which freelance
supporters were offered an
optimised shuttle bus service around
the course so that they could cheer
their runners home from
strategically located vantage points.
All of a sudden, vociferous cheer
leading groups appeared in
relatively isolated locations.
Runners depart southbound from
the Esplanade for a quick out-back
section and then turn eastward onto
Raffles Avenue at 4km. Sir Thomas
Stamford Raffles, after whom the
road and the famous hotel was
named, signed a treaty on behalf of
the British East India Company in
1819 for a port concession. Five
years later Singapore became a
colony, but it was only in 1867,
with a population of 100,000, that
it became an official possession of
the British Crown. Singapore was
released from that status by
unilateral declaration in 1963,
although it subsequently spent a
fruitless two years within an
abortive Malaysian Federation
before attaining its present status an
independent city-state.
Runners do a quick out-back
between 6-8km and then head
directly to the East Coast Park. By
the time they return they have
covered 30km. The 12.2km
Distance Running
remaining does not include the 4km
out-back starting section so, among
other diversions, runners go around
the Kailong Riverside Park to make
up the distance. Sweeping past the
Singapore Flyer ferris wheel, runners
pass the landmark floating platform
at 40km. Then they rejoin their
outward route. Dispensing with the
out-back start section, runners
sweep right after the start line to
pass the Padang on their right
before sprinting past City Hall up St
Andrew’s Road to the finish line –
all 15,000 of them.
Foremost among them this year
were world champion athletes Luke
Kibet and Edith Masai. Kibet set a
new event record of 2:13:01, but
Masai could not match the
performance of Salina Kosgei, back
in 2006, when she set the course
record of 2:31:53.
No matter: as Singaporeans know
very well, the trend in the marathon
- and in life in general - is upward.
The standard is rising.
RACE CONTACT DETAILS
STANDARD CHARTERED SINGAPORE MARATHON DECEMBER
Mr Wong Tien Choy, 3 Champions Way,
#01-10, Singapore Sports School, Singapore 737912
Tel: 65 6386 2721 Fax: 65 6386 7773
Email: [email protected] Inet: www.singaporemarathon.com
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Month – Month 2009
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